Hello and welcome to the tenth episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast.
This episode is about Podcasts themselves, a brief history of podcasting, some of my favourite podcasts, and how I make my podcasts. Perhaps you'll like some of the podcasts I mention, or even decide to make a podcast of your own.
Podcasting started as a way to have subscriptions to audio shows. It sort of evolved from RSS feeds, which stand for Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds are like a website address that gets used by a program, such as an internet browser like Firefox, or a media program for podcasts such as Apple's iTunes. Using the podcast example, the RSS feed is subscribed to, checked for updates, and if they're available, iTunes will then download the latest episode.
Focussing on iTunes and podcasting again, Apple added a Podcast feature to iTunes in June 2005, with a podcast directory that had 3000 podcasts linked to. Within two days, one million podcast subscriptions were reported.
To give you a little idea about how useful podcasts can be, I'll include a short episode from ABC news, interviewing Apple CEO Steve Jobs when podcast features were released into iTunes.
One of the most famous podcasters is Adam Curry, who makes the "No Agenda" podcast that I love. Curry is known as "The Podfather", for being a celebrity who embraced the podcast medium early on. He didnt invent the idea of podcasts, but grabbed the idea while it was small, and held on.
Another famous podcaster is Leo Laporte, who broadcasts some thirty hours of audio a week, he has his own company TWiT, This Week in Tech, which has about 10 podcasts about Apple computers, Windows running PC's, security, bio tech and general computer news.
Most major news organizations also put out podcasts, I subscribe to the 60 Minutes podcast, its awesome, its actually only 40 something minutes long, you miss 20 whole minutes of ads from the tv version! Its also the full american version, in New Zealand we get a rehashed version for NZ, with a New Zealand host, and a couple of normally lame New Zealand stories each episode. The American show focuses on much larger issues normally like war, A list celebrity interviews, health breakthroughs etc. The stupid New Zealand issues are normally slapped in for some kiwi content, things about young mothers in Auckland, or P users in Christchurch. Not only do I miss out on 20 minutes of ads, but I also get to hear major stories a week or two before they are on the NZ show. I dont ever watch the televised NZ 60 minutes now, just listen to the podcast that comes out monday my time, probably released sometime sunday American time.
I also get Time podcasts, from Time magazine, documentaries from the BBC and audio from NPR, which is an american public radio station, we know them best from parodies on The Simpsons and Grand Theft Auto games where they have really boring content, and constantly beg for listener donations every 2 minutes.
Theres many types of online only content released as podcasts too, my Time magazine podcasts are only available as podcasts of course, you cant have audio in the magazine edition, so actual audio from interviews is released as podcasts, whereas in the magazine you just get edited text from the conversations.
Some of the best content only released as podcasts that I listen to include Stephen Fry's PODGRAMS, Stephen Fry is perhaps the smartest man in the world, Tank Riot, which is kind of my inspiration for my own podcasts, a bunch of friends talking about topics they like, and the many Vegan podcasts I like listening to, the most enjoyable is NZ Vegan Podcast. Until theres a Vegan Channel on TV, the internet and podcasting in particular is indispensable for Vegan shows.
Podcasts can be anything from some weird guy talking into a microphone in his bedroom, ahem, to professionally produced shows like the NZ Vegan Podcast. An interesting interview trick in podcasts is people using Skype to call people, and recording the audio from the call, there might as well be two people in a recording booth recording the show together, when they can be anywhere in the world thanks to Skype.
I'll quickly list the podcasts I subscribe to, all 36 of them :) I'll make it quick.
Adam Currys Daily Source Code, where Adam Curry talks about conspiracies,
Cranky Geeks, John C Dvoraks main show, I listen to the audio only version , its about 15MB per show compared to 100+ for the video , a computer news show,
The Debate Hour Podcast, debating for, you guessed it, an hour about gun control, abortion etc,
BBC Documentaries, stories about The Beetles and the Soviet union among others,
Great Speeches in History, where I've got a speeches from Nixon and Reagan, Martin Luther king and Nelson Mandela.
I Cringely, Cringely is a tech writer who also records his articles and puts podcast editions up, its very cool to choose between reading and listening, both for free, it takes me a minute or two to read the story, or about 10 minutes normally to listen to it read.
Borats Bits was a one off podcast, an australian interview with Borat, a character by Sacha Baron Cohen,
Next is my podcast,
The Kojima productions podcast, video game news,
The Laporte Report, The Tech Guy and Mac Break Weekly, all Leo Laportes technology podcasts,
Macintosh Folklore Radio, stories about the 1984 Macintosh development read out,
Marcus Lush, a Radio Live podcast that NEVER seems to get updated, its the highlights from his morning radio show,
Meat Free Media Podcast, a New Zealand Vegetarian/Vegan podcast,
Motown 50, Motown is celebrating a look back at their long history, this includes interviews with stars such as Stevie Wonder,
No Agenda, one of my favourite podcasts talking about random things mostly, life experiences, politics, real news, conspiracies and how Vegans are to blame for everything.
Bored yet? Almost over.
Intelligence Squared, and NPR Memorable moments 2007, thats from the american public radio station I mentioned , Intelligence Squared is some very good debates held in New York, and Memorable Moments is highlights from 2007 that were on the radio.
NZ Vegan podcast, my personal favourite podcast, and thats saying something, I listen to podcasts for over an hour a day, and NZ Vegan is by far my favourite.
The Onion Radio News, one minute fake news clips, very funny.
Peta's Podcast, talking about animal rights ,
The Secret Diary of Steve Ballmer, a joke podcast with articles from the fake ballmer blog read by Alex, the mac voice I also use. Hasnt been updated for awhile now.
A Meet the Author Episode, Meet The Author is an Apple podcast featuring book writers talking about their books for an hour or so, I have the Stephen Fry episode, he talks about his history with Apple computers.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5, a tech conference with Bill Gates from Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple talking with Walt Mossberg, a famous tech journalist.
Tank Riot, talking about mostly nerdy topics like sci fi movies and scientists, a very good podcast.
Tech 5 comes out during week days, its an american podcast by John C Dvorak who also is on Cranky Geeks and No Agenda,
This WEEK in TECH, Leo Laportes main podast that comes out weekly of course,
Thrillercast, people talking about how great black Michael Jackson was, to do with the release of Thriller 25, the greatest selling album of all time,
Three Time magazine podcasts, Entertainment, Politics and 10 Questions, where you hear full interviews.
Vegan Freak Radio, a podcast for Vegans,
and finally the 60 minutes show.
Right now I have 9GB of podcasts, 11.1 days worth according to iTunes. I have 36 different podcasts.
To end, I'll tell you, dear listener, how I make my podcast.
Basically, I type out a script, I figure out what I want to talk about in advance, what sound clips I want to use, and get it all prepared. Then I use Garageband, a audio recording program that comes with all Apple computers, part of iLife, I basically open up TextEdit, which is the Word like program with my script in it, I click record in Garageband and Command Plus Tab to switch quickly to the script in front of all the other programs. If I need to pause and correct a mistake or something I can switch back and re-record that flubbed line. To put sound files in , I just drag AAC sound files into Garageband in the place I want them.
Finally, when Im all recorded in Garageband, I export the recording to iTunes, which takes a couple of minutes getting it all mixed right, and convert it from a 900MB odd AIFF type sound file to a 10-40MB AAC sound file, for the final podcast.
I put in the information like author, the name of the podcast episode, and I copy the script I read from into the Lyrics section, or description, so it shows up when you play the sound file back on an iPod or in iTunes itself.
I also add the Album art, a photo I took of a Dragonfly outside of the kitchen here.
When I have the AAC sound file on my Desktop, I upload to archive.org, which saves websites like a museum, they seem to have infinite storage space, they let you upload files for free to their servers.
Then, I copy the actual link to the sound file on the Archive.org server, very important, and paste that as a media link into my Blog. At the Blog, www.jaywontdart.blogspot.com, I also paste the show script in the blog entry. So you could always just read my full podcast episode there without downloading the audio :)
When I update my blogspot blog, my Feedburner RSS feed account picks up the new entry and adds it to my RSS Feed automatically. I also log into Feedburner to update the RSS feed's description for iTunes to pick up, I include the topics of the episode into the description so they also work as keywords on iTunes, if someone searchs for keywords I've used in my podcast topics, it should show in iTunes, if you search for South Invercargill, or Mister Rogers, I should show up.
iTunes just shows the RSS feed, it doesnt do any storage or sending of the podcast itself. The crucial thing in podcasting is the RSS feed, you dont need iTunes to listen to podcasts, its the best thing for podcast management of course, but you dont need it. All you need is the RSS feed address.
So, to sum up, I record my podcast, upload it to archive.org who host for free, I make a blog post with the link to the actual file, my feedburner RSS feed picks up that new blog entry automatically and when iTunes updates RSS feeds, it will notice my new episode and download it automatically to your computer! Simple!
Well, thank you again for listening to this long and boring podcast episode. My next episode topics include some more No Agenda stuff, Im making two seperate episodes, one for Crackpot and one for The Buzzkill, clips from No Agenda to do with each of the main hosts, Crackpot, Adam Curry, with his wacky conspiracies, including the Hydroxy Booster he got a bunch of hippies to cook up and add to his Jaguar, to try and get more out of the fuel he uses.
The Buzzkill, John C Dvorak, the calmer older host, with lots of interesting lifestories. Some of the things he talks about include Hummingbirds, Soy Milk, Honey and the little Black Kids who go door to door in his area trying to get you to buy magazines.
If you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.
Have a super happy day, bye.
<--End song You Can't Say No To A Soldier plays-->
Written for: Iceland (1942)
Lyric: Mack Gordon
Music: Harry Warren
Year: 1942
Original publisher: Twentieth Century Music Corporation, rights controlled by
Mayfair Music Corp
Listen, little lady, it's the order of the day,
Issued by the highest of authority;
Fellows in the service simply can't be turned away,
You know that defense must get priority.
So, if you're patriotic'lly inclined,
Heed the call to arms, and keep this thought in mind:
Chorus 1:
You can't say, "No," to a soldier,
A sailor or a handsome marine;
No, you can't say, "No," if he wants to dance,
If he's gonna fight, he's got a right to romance;
So, get out your lipstick and powder,
Be beautiful and dutiful, too.
If he's not your type, then it's still o-kay,
You can always kiss him in a sisterly way,
Oh, you can't say, "No,
No, you gotta give in,
If you want him to win for you.
Chorus 2 (from movie)
You can't say, "No," to a soldier,
A sailor or a handsome marine;
No, you can't say, "No," if he wants to dance,
If he's gonna fight, he's got a right to romance;
So, get out your lipstick and powder,
Be beautiful and dutiful, too.
If he says it's cold on those submarines,
You can knit a sweater, but that's not what he means;
Oh, you can't say, "No,"
No, no, no, no, no, no;
No, they're not made of tin,
So, you better give in
If you want him to win for you.
Sources
------------
Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting
ABC News Podcasting added to iTunes, interview with Steve Jobs from the iTunes store
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